FileVersionInfo.FileVersion returns ProductVersion?

Question

I am trying to get the file version using C#:

string file = @\"C:\\somefile.dll\";
Console.WriteLine(FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(file).FileVersion);


        

Answer 1

The reason is, in WIN32 API (and the file metadata), product versions are defined as string but file versions are defined as integer while in .NET, all of them are defined as integer.

If you use reflector and inspect FileVersionInfo class, you can see that they are loaded differently:

 this.productVersion = GetFileVersionString(memIntPtr, string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, format, new object[] { codepage, "ProductVersion" }))

But:

this.fileMajor = HIWORD(fixedFileInfo.dwFileVersionMS);
this.fileMinor = LOWORD(fixedFileInfo.dwFileVersionMS);
this.fileBuild = HIWORD(fixedFileInfo.dwFileVersionLS);
this.filePrivate = LOWORD(fixedFileInfo.dwFileVersionLS);

Answer 2

It seems Windows Explorer are stripping leading 0s of the version parts.

Try creating an assembly with FileVersion 001.001.001.001, it will show as 1.1.1.1 in explorer. But your code would return the actual value (001.001.001.001).

EDIT:

Explorer will return 001.001.001.001 as ProductVersion, but only if AssemblyInformationalVersion isn't set, in which case it would return that as ProductVersion.